John Tyler
President of the United States from 1841 to 1845 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was an American politician who served as the tenth president of the United States from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig ticket with President William Henry Harrison, succeeding to the presidency following Harrison's death 31 days after assuming office. Tyler was a stalwart supporter and advocate of states' rights, including regarding slavery, and he adopted nationalistic policies as president only when they did not infringe on the states' powers. His unexpected rise to the presidency posed a threat to the presidential ambitions of Henry Clay and other Whig politicians and left Tyler estranged from both of the nation's major political parties at the time.
John Tyler | |
|---|---|
.png) Portrait c. 1860–1862 | |
| 10th President of the United States | |
| In office April 4, 1841 – March 4, 1845 | |
| Vice President | None[lower-alpha 1] |
| Preceded by | William Henry Harrison |
| Succeeded by | James K. Polk |
| 10th Vice President of the United States | |
| In office March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841 | |
| President | William Henry Harrison |
| Preceded by | Richard Mentor Johnson |
| Succeeded by | George M. Dallas |
| United States Senator from Virginia | |
| In office March 4, 1827 – February 29, 1836 | |
| Preceded by | John Randolph |
| Succeeded by | William Cabell Rives |
| President pro tempore of the United States Senate | |
| In office March 3, 1835 – December 6, 1835 | |
| Preceded by | George Poindexter |
| Succeeded by | William R. King |
| 23rd Governor of Virginia | |
| In office December 10, 1825 – March 4, 1827 | |
| Preceded by | James Pleasants |
| Succeeded by | William Branch Giles |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 23rd district | |
| In office December 17, 1816 – March 3, 1821 | |
| Preceded by | John Clopton |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Stevenson |
| Delegate from Virginia to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States | |
| In office February 4, 1861 – January 17, 1862 | |
| Preceded by | New Constituency |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1790-03-29)March 29, 1790 Greenway Plantation, Charles City County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | January 18, 1862(1862-01-18) (aged 71) Ballard House, Richmond, Virginia |
| Resting place | Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Whig (1834–1841) |
| Other political affiliations |
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| Spouses | |
| Children | 15 |
| Parent |
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| Alma mater | College of William & Mary |
| Profession |
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| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | Virginia militia |
| Years of service | 1813 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Charles City Rifles |
| Battles/wars | War of 1812 |
Tyler was born into a prominent slaveholding Virginia family. He became a national figure at a time of political upheaval. In the 1820s, the Democratic-Republican Party, at the time the nation's only political party, split into several factions. Initially a Democrat, Tyler opposed President Andrew Jackson during the nullification crisis as he saw Jackson's actions as infringing on states' rights and criticized Jackson's expansion of executive power during the Bank War. This led Tyler to ally with the Whig Party. He served as a Virginia state legislator and governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator. Tyler was a regional Whig vice-presidential nominee in the 1836 presidential election; they lost. He was the sole nominee on the 1840 Whig presidential ticket as William Henry Harrison's running mate. Under the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", the Harrison–Tyler ticket defeated incumbent president Martin Van Buren.
President Harrison died just one month after taking office, and Tyler became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency. Amid uncertainty as to whether a vice president succeeded a deceased president, or merely took on his duties, Tyler immediately took the presidential oath of office, setting a lasting precedent. He signed into law some of the Whig-controlled Congress's bills, but he was a strict constructionist and vetoed the party's bills to create a national bank and raise tariff rates. He believed that the president, rather than Congress, should set policy, and he sought to bypass the Whig establishment led by Senator Henry Clay. Most of Tyler's cabinet resigned shortly into his term and the Whigs expelled him from the party, dubbing him "His Accidency". Tyler was the first president to have his veto of legislation overridden by Congress. He faced a stalemate on domestic policy, although he had several foreign-policy achievements, including the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain and the Treaty of Wanghia with China. Tyler firmly believed in manifest destiny and saw the annexation of Texas as economically advantageous to the United States, signing a bill to offer Texas statehood just before leaving office and returning to his plantation.
When the American Civil War began in 1861, Tyler at first supported the Peace Conference. When it failed, he sided with the Confederacy. He presided over the opening of the Virginia Secession Convention and served as a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. Tyler subsequently won election to the Confederate House of Representatives but died before it assembled. Some scholars have praised Tyler's political resolve, but historians have generally given his presidency a low ranking. Tyler did make progress in combining the American and British navies to stop oceanic African slave trafficking under the Webster–Ashburton Treaty. That treaty also peacefully settled the border between Maine and Canada. Today, Tyler is seldom remembered in comparison to other presidents and maintains only a limited presence in American cultural memory.[1]